Nigerian policemen led by the Divisional Police Officer of Gwarinpa in Abuja, Babale Hamza Galadima, in a gestapo manner have invaded Hotel VIMA in the 1st Avenue area of Gwarinpa, arresting all occupants and destroying properties in the hotel.
SaharaReporters obtained videos of the destruction left by the policemen during the incident which occurred on Sunday night at about 11:30pm.
The pictures and Close Circuit TV videos on Monday showed doors and room furniture destroyed by the policemen during the invasion.
Meanwhile, the hotel guests arrested and taken to the Gwarinpa Police Division have been asked to pay N500,000 as bail to secure their freedom, SaharaReporters further learnt from the victims.
Lamenting the development, the Manager of the hotel, who simply identified as Wayne said that all the staff of the hotel were still detained in the station as of 5:45pm on Monday.
He said, “At about 11:30pm on 14th of July 2024, some men of the Nigerian police stormed our hotel in a way that we thought it was a robbery seen. All customers and visible staff were harassed, beaten and dehumanised, property destroyed, and everyone on scene was arrested and taken to the station.
“The operation lasted for about an hour, only the receptionist and gateman were allowed to stay back.
“Some laptops were taken, money from the front Desk was taking and some of our customers’ money was also taking.
“The following footage from our CCTV captured,” he narrated.
Some CCTV footages the manager shared with SaharaReporters showed staff and guests including a family with little kids marched outside and ordered to sit on the floor.
It also showed one of the police officers carrying sticks which were said to have been used to beat up the hotel guests.
In one of the videos of the aftermath of the invasion, the doors were broken and chairs were damaged. The food one of the guests was eating was seen abandoned on a table.
A voice was overheard in one of the videos lamenting the level of destruction, adding that the police had never invited the hotel staff nor notified the management of any form of security concerns in the facility to warrant such level of destruction.
According to the narrator, “Last night the Nigerian Police Gwarinpa Division, personally led by the DPO came to the hotel around 12 midnight and was harassing all the guests that lodged in the hotel and staff. They arrested everybody including the staff. As you see in this video the chairs they destroyed. According to them the hotel is harbouring criminals. I don’t have problems with them saying that the hotel is harbouring criminals because for a professional police officer if you say a hotel is harbouring a criminal, the first thing to do is to run an internal investigation on your own.
“Meanwhile, you didn’t carry out any investigation, you didn’t invite the hotel management to say, look we are suspecting that some criminals are coming to stay in this hotel. You didn’t invite anybody to come and give a statement, you just invaded a hotel and arrested people. A man was in the hotel room with his wife and child and they picked them up. There was no prior notice, they didn’t invite anybody, they arrested everybody in this facility – someone was even eating food they carried him and left his food.
“They picked everybody including all the staff in the hotel. You have never been to the facility to say that we are suspecting that something is wrong with this hotel, do you people have the Hotel Act? Nothing of that was done. This country is becoming something else.”
Meanwhile, a source told SaharaReporters that the DPO, who was the former CSO to a retired IGP, carried out the invasion as part of new tactics to raise money to meet up the financial targets given to him by the FCT CP, Ben Igweh.
According to the source the DPO among other methods, “busts into joints and hotels to harrass customers and charge exorbitant prices for bail.
“Hamza Galadima DPO Gwarinpa yesterday went into a hotel VIMA in the 1st Avenue Area of Gwarinpa to arrest occupants and destroy properties in the hotel.
“CCTV captured some of his activities claiming the hotel was harbouring criminals.
“Later today, those innocent customers arrested yesterday night are being asked to pay five hundred thousand naira (N500,000) each for bail.
“All these practices since the DPO was posted to Gwarinpa is to look for money to give kickbacks to the FCT Commissioner who is known for kickbacks.”
The source added, “An eyewitness to one of his many operations also testified how the DPO arrested him in a joint in Gwarinpa last two weeks and asked for bail money when some young people were having a peaceful party.”
The source quoted one of the victims to have said, “If I was a criminal, why not charge me to court?
“So many victims of Mr Galadima’s unprofessional conducts are ready to come forward to testify before the IG of Police.”
Another source told SaharaReporters that Mr Galadima was known for unprofessional conduct and human right abuse, adding that his questionable character had earned him the position of DPO in Gwarinpa as the FCT Police Commissioner was out to work with policemen who could generate income by all means.
The FCT police spokesperson, Josephine Adeh, had yet to be reached for comments as of the time of filing this report.
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